Around 700 workers at sites including Tata’s Teesside Beam Mill and Skinningrove works will be affected.

In total, Tata Steel employs around 1,300 people on Teesside out of a total UK workforce of 6,500.

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the steelworkers' union Community, said: "We're extremely disappointed with the way that Tata Steel have handled this announcement, which does not reflect well on Tata's values.

"However, I am pleased that Tata Steel chairman Cyrus Mistry has now agreed to meet the unions and I hope this can take place soon so that we can start to address the understandable worries and concerns of our members, their families and communities."

Community, Unite and the GMB said today in a joint statement: "Tata Steel has failed to consult at all with the trade unions before making this move, which could have serious consequences for employees and contractors right across Tata Steel, not just within the Long Products business that it wants to sell.

"The unions have been treated with contempt in this process as the level of consultation that we would expect ahead of such a major strategic announcement has not taken place.

"We were made aware of this fait accompli two days ago, which is neither within the spirit nor the letter of long-standing Information and Consultation or European Works Council agreements.

"We want Tata Steel to take a step back and carry out the consultation with its unions, which it should have been doing in recent months when it was preparing to sell its assets.

"The fact that Tata Steel wants to abandon half of its European operations and pull out of an entire strategic market does not bode well for the future and ends Tata Steel's vision to be a global steel player.

"Tata Steel has long emphasised that its European operations are 'one company' but today's announcement is the final nail in that concept's coffin.

"We are calling on the Government to intervene in the public interest to ensure a future for industrial assets of strategic importance to the UK's construction, infrastructure and manufacturing base.

"Our immediate thoughts are with those employees, contractors, families and communities that are worried about their future and we would urge Tata Steel to follow its own Code of Conduct and act in the interests of the communities in which it operates by engaging in meaningful consultation with its trade unions before it progresses the terms of this Memorandum of Understanding."